This invention pertains to the organization and storage of belts used with clothing, specifically belts which use fastening buckles. A review of prior art in the apparel accessory group shows a general split on patents into two categories, one focused on the commercial display of belt items in retail sales, and another focused on the end consumer for use in a residential closet. The purpose of the former category is generally to protect the items from damage before sale, enhance displays, coordinate belts with other clothing items, or provide security against theft. U.S. Pat. No. 5,799,843 [1998—Hsu], U.S. Pat. No. 6,264,046 [2001—Ford], U.S. Pat. No. 5,054,666 [1991—Blanchard] and U.S. Pat. No. 6,497,347 [2002—Feibelman] are examples of designs made for these uses. This category of belt hangers is not practical for consumers to store in their personal closets as they require special parts and a good amount of attachment/detachment time.
Several subset types of holders or hangers exist for holding long linear accessories like belts in a residential closet. A large subset of these is basically the standard three sided garment hanger modified by the addition of clips, prongs or slots. U.S. Pat. No. 6,749,093 B2 [2004—Harris], U.S. Pat. No. 6,296,160 [2001—Murray], and D432319 [2000—Bartholow] are examples. These subset types offer space efficiency but due to their perpendicular orientation to the support member, and the tendency to orient the thin side of the belt to the user, visibility to the items stored on them can become an issue in a tightly packed closet. The hanger may also be subject to tilt due to uneven weight distribution with several belts stored on it, which can result in dropped belts. The belts may also be dislodged from the hooks or slots when bumped or when adjacent articles are lifted out of the closet.
Another subset of designs has a focus on a valet hanger. Besides holding a suit, ties and belts can be secured with clips to make up a coordinated set of clothing for storage or travel. One such example is U.S. Pat. No. 5,526,968 [1996—Larson]. These types have the limitation of visually obscuring the belts by the larger clothing items placed over the hanger when placed in a crowded closet. The number of belts, which may be attached, is usually limited.
Another subset of patents in the residential category exists, which upon examination, are designs primarily for tie storage with a claimed secondary use for belts as well. Examples are U.S. Pat. No. 5,642,841 [1997—Beaty], U.S. Pat. No. 4,863,043 [1989—Bowen] and U.S. Pat. No. 6,398,086 [2002—Bennet]. The inadequacies of the combined tie/belt storage stem from the fact that they rely on gravity to secure the belt frame to a cantilevered horizontal facing surface. Since most ties are quite flexible and sit limply on the surface, gravity is sufficient for ties but does not serve as well for many belts, especially so with rigid belts. When the cantilevered surface is used to hold the belt frame, the rigid buckles nest awkwardly in the assembly. As the buckles are not securely fastened to the holding surface the buckle can be knocked off the holder. Visibility and removal are difficult in a normally crowded closet. The storage device often has to be removed off the rod to fully see the items. The mere removal of the hanger can subject the belt frames to be dislodged.
Attempts have been made to solve these problems. U.S. Pat. No. 5,664,708 [1997—Sacks], for example, has the ability to rotate, improving visibility; but reliance on a cantilevered surface still subjects stored items to imbalance and dislodgement. U.S. D404577 [1999—Schildkraut] reduces dislodgement risk by use of deeper article attachment hooks and offers visibility with rotation capability. However, this is still problematic to the user when he needs to remove and hold several belts because the desired belt is located on the lower section of the deep storage hooks.
In paragraphs two, three and five of U.S. Pat. No. 5,642,817 [1997—O'Brien], the arguments for the requirements and limitations of previous attempts to construct a device for hanging belts are captured. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,642,817 design, O'Brien attempts to resolve the problems of hanger tilt under load with an arcuate shape and rounded corners of the hanger. It proposes to solve the above-mentioned problem of dropped items by use of firm attachment of the device to a ring. It proposes the belt separation with the sinusoidal shape of the bottom member of the hanging device in another embodiment. In a crowded closet, however, there is often no room to slide the adjacent hangers back to create a volume of space to properly view the items. In such a condition, the opening of a holding ring would require removal of the whole assembly from the closet to properly survey the available items, select the desired one and manipulate the ring closures to release the belt. Deliberately maintaining such space for viewing and removal defeats the space savings generated by use of a narrow hanger with a plurality of items organized perpendicular to the closet rod.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,709,838 [1987—Campbell] recognizes the advantages of a vertical orientation as the base for storing clothing accessories which are linear in nature. It also employs as others have, a hook on a swivel for visibility. The problem mentioned in U.S. Pat. No. 5,642,817 (“ . . . depending on the depth of the hook, only a fixed number of belts may be supported. Further, it is highly probable that a belt frame may be accidentally forced from the hook thereby allowing the belt to fall to the floor. Finally if a plurality of belts are hung from a single hook, the user must remove all of the belts between the end of the hook and the desired belt in order to gain access to the desired belt”) exists with U.S. Pat. No. 4,709,838.
Others have designed devices which require screws or bolts to be installed on closet doors, walls or shelves to overcome the problems mentioned above. U.S. Des. 334,291 [1993—Rooke] is an example where the combined tie and belt rack is screwed into a supporting member. Consumers in general are reluctant to purchase items requiring time and skill to measure, drill and install hardware.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,206,209 B1 [2001—Houg-Brown] claims to improve the issues of visibility, selection, and dislodgement. The mechanism employed for article attachment is a cantilevered hanging surface fitted with a two way spring latch to secure the item from dislodgement. This attachment mechanism is fundamentally different from the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,076,714 [2000—Wyenn] makes use of Bungee Cord for hanging hockey gear for air drying. U.S. Pat. No. 7,040,517 [2006—Swanson] makes use of cord for supporting hats off a support rod. Both of these designs make use of flexible cord under tension when suspending articles. They do not draw the items to a surface but hang uncontrolled. These designs require open space not typically found in a residential home closet. Both designs would be problematic for storage in a crowded clothes closet when adjacent to other clothing items. Entanglement, visibility issues and overall unacceptable aesthetics are some of the issues with these designs for a residential closet.
Thus, there is a need to produce a storage device for linear items with a buckle prong, buckle frame, or a closed holding loop which is based on a retractable holding mechanism. This invention fulfills such need.
It offers storage in a space efficient way when a plurality of items attached is hung. In addition it allows easy organizing and viewing of the items stored (even in a crowded space) and securely attaches the items stored to the holder. Furthermore, it allows individual retrieval of items without requiring removal of the whole device and offers the option of securely attaching the storage device hook to the support member of the receiving space. Much of the prior art relied on gravity to hold the item off a cantilevered peg, pin or lever to hold the item. This invention makes use of the tension force inherent in a stretchable cord, or a cord, filament thread or wire attached to a spring reel mechanism or a similar device. This would provide a retraction force when anchored inside the hollow body, to retract an eyelet to pin a buckle prong and buckle frame against the storage device's external surface. In the case of other linear items to be stored, a closeable loop (e.g. a carabiner spring hook or wire gate) on the end of the retractable line is used to attach to a hanging loop, fabric loop, ring, hole or open frame on the item and secure it against the storage device's external surface. To accomplish this, one end of the cord is attached to an anchor position inside a cylindrical, spherical, or oval hollow body or any practically shaped polyhedron or polytope shape. The cord, filament thread or wire then passes through a hole in the surface of the hollow body. The other end is attached to an eyelet or to a loop or hook which may be opened and closed for storing items. In the case of apparel belts with buckle frames, the prong can be retained by a permanently closed eyelet and pinned against the device chassis surface. This storage method allows for convenient extraction and retraction of the articles being stored. The cylinder or other shape rotates around a shaft for viewing and storage space efficiency. The shaft is fixed with an attachment hook allowing for suspension from a supporting member and optionally secured to that member.